U.S. Pat. No. RE34,208 teaches a swinging bob toy having three bobs on a string with the middle bob being slideable and constrained on the string between the two end bobs. This toy has been sold under the trademark Astrojax® for over 20 years. A number of varieties of the toy have been marketed, including foam-mantled versions, light-up versions, a version with liquid-filled bobs, and a modular version. Holding one end bob, the basic orbits are a vertical orbit, a horizontal orbit and a figure-eight or “butterfly” pattern. The vertical orbit is the most fundamental orbit since it is generally the orbit which beginners first learn and master, and many advanced maneuvers are based on the vertical orbit. Players have developed a large number of tricks and maneuvers with the toy, many of which can be viewed in the thousands of videos players have posted on www.YouTube.com. A disadvantage of some versions of this toy is that the weight, appearance, slidability and other characteristics of the bobs are not customizable.
Another disadvantage of previously-marketed versions of the swinging bob toy is that, because the string is narrow compared with the width of a bob throughbore at its narrowest, play becomes increasingly degraded as knots accumulate in the string due to careless storage or handling of the toy. An overhand knot is shown in FIG. 10A in an untightened configuration and in FIG. 10B an overhand knot is shown in a tightened configuration. The overhand knot is the simplest of all knots and the most likely to inadvertently form in the string of the toy due to careless handling or storage. (An overhand knot can also form in the string during play, although that is somewhat unlikely.) Even if the knots in the string are noticed, they are hard to remove from thin braided nylon string.
In the original foam version of the toy sold under the trademark Astrojax® by New Toy Classics of San Francisco, Calif. in the 1990s, and the V-Max™ and Saturn™ versions of the swinging bob toy which was sold by Active People of Binningen, Switzerland, the string was made of a braided nylon nominally labeled as having a “ 1/16 inch” diameter (i.e., a nominal diameter of 1.588 mm), and the bore diameter of a bob at its narrowest was 3.175 mm. However, when compressed by a force of 20 grains (i.e., compressed transversely under normal conditions of play while sliding through the bore by what is equivalent to the weight of a bob) the string had a thickness of 1 mm across the direction of the compression. Therefore, the ratio of (i) the string width when compressed (transversely) by a force equal to the weight of a bob to (ii) the throughbore diameter at its narrowest was less than 0.33. Given that an overhand knot has a width which is roughly three times the compressed width of the string, a knot in the string can slide through the bore of the bob. However, when a knot slides through the bore, and particularly on first impact with the throughbore, the sliding friction increases, negatively impacting the feel of play with the toy. This effect is compounded as the number of overhand knots increases.
In the Aqua™ version of the swinging bob toy, which was sold by Active People of Binningen, Switzerland, the string was made of a braided nylon with a circular-cross section weave with a diameter of 1.8 mm when uncompressed. When compressed by a force of 28 grams (i.e., compressed transversely under normal conditions of play while sliding through the bore by what is equivalent to the weight of a bob) the string had a thickness of 1.4 mm across the direction of the compression. The bore diameter of a bob at its narrowest was 3.4 mm. Therefore, the ratio of (i) the string width when compressed (transversely) by a force equal to the weight of a bob to (ii) the throughbore diameter at its narrowest was less than 0.45. A well-tightened overhand knot formed in the string has a maximum width of just about or slightly less than the width of the bore and can pass through the bore. Therefore, when a knot slides through the bore, and particularly on first impact with the throughbore, the sliding friction increases, negatively impacting the feel of play with the toy. Furthermore, an overhand knot cannot be used as an end stopper to reliably constrain the bobs to the string.
Another disadvantage of some versions of this swinging bob toy is that the exterior impact surfaces of the bobs (i.e., the surfaces of the bobs that may impact the surroundings during operation of the toy) are hard and impact with the player can be unpleasant. One previously-marketed version of the swinging bob toy where the majority of the exterior impact surface is soft is a liquid-filled version which has been sold under the trademark Aqua™ and is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 6,896,578. (Reference numerals used in this paragraph refer to U.S. Pat. No. 6,896,578.) As is shown in FIG. 6A of U.S. Pat. No. 6,896,578 and described in column 5, lines 35-60, this version has a liquid-filled bladder (650) and a non-elastomeric throughbore sheath (630). Although a majority of the exterior surface which can impact the surroundings, including the player, (i.e., the “exterior impact surface”) is soft, the top and bottom ends of the throughbore sheath (630) are also part of the exterior impact surface, and they are non-elastomeric. The throughbore sheath (630) was designed in this version to extend to the exterior impact surface because it was believed that it was important to have a low sliding friction over the entirety of the throughbore (631) to optimize the feel of play with the toy.
A modular version of the swinging bob toy has been sold under the trademark MX™ and is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 9,004,978. (Reference numerals used in this paragraph refer to U.S. Pat. No. 9,004,978.) As is shown in FIG. 2A of U.S. Pat. No. 9,004,978 and described from column 3, lines 31 to column 4, line 27, this version also has a non-elastomeric throughbore sheath (140). Although a majority of the exterior surface which might impact the surroundings, including the player, (i.e., the “exterior impact surface”) is soft, the top and bottom ends of the throughbore sheath (140) are also part of the exterior impact surface, and impact of the ends of the throughbore sheath (140) with the player during play may be unpleasant. Again, the throughbore sheath (140) was designed in this version to extend into the exterior impact surfaces because it was believed that it was important to have a low coefficient of sliding friction over the entirety of the throughbore (140) to optimize the feel of play with the toy. Another limitation of this modular version is that, although it allows cosmetic customizations, it does not allow functional customizations such as customizations to change the weight or mass distribution of the bobs. Furthermore, its modular components are all components that are manufactured for this product.
Another swinging bob toy with three bobs is sold online at www.freedo.info under the trademark TriThology™. The bobs of this toy are slidably constrained to a looped string by small metallic hooks or loops connected to the bobs by swivels, and so the bobs have their centers of mass displaced from the string. Holding one end bob, the basic orbits are a horizontal orbit and vertical oscillations, and there is also a horizontal orbit with superimposed vertical oscillations. Because the three bobs have the same mass, the orbits have a balanced feel and appearance. Disadvantages of this toy include that the weight, appearance, slidability and other characteristics of the bobs are not customizable.
A swinging bob toy with two sliding bobs on a tethering means is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,137,863. This toy is sold by Yomega Corporation of Seekonk, Mass. under the trademark Monkey Knuckles™, and videos showing its use can be found on www.YouTube.com. Although the bobs have throughbores through which the string passes so the bobs can slide on the string, the throughbores of Monkey Knuckles™ are straighter and provide more friction than the flared bores of Astrojax® bobs, so Monkey Knuckles™ bobs do not slide as easily as Astrojax® bobs. This feature of the design of the bobs allows tricks and maneuvers where friction plays a role in the stability of the motion. A disadvantage of this toy is that the bobs are hard and their impact with the player can be unpleasant. Another limitation of the toy is that the weight, appearance, slidability and other characteristics of the bobs are not customizable.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy with bobs which have exterior impact surfaces (i.e., the surfaces of the bobs that may impact the surroundings during operation of the toy) which are soft or elastomeric over their entirety.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy where non-elastomeric components of the bobs are mounted in and/or shielded by cushioning elastomeric components, particularly where the elastomeric components are designed to absorb and dissipate impact shocks.
More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy where a bob has a non-elastomeric throughbore sheath, and particularly where the throughbore sheath does not extend to the exterior impact surfaces of the bob.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy which is modular.
More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy which is modular, and its modular components include easily-available components produced by third-party manufacturers, particularly components widely available at retail outlets such as hardware stores.
More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a modular swinging bob toy where the weight and/or mass distribution is customizable.
Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a modular swinging bob toy where modular components can be used for different versions of the toy.
More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy where a dimensionless ratio inversely proportional to a moment of inertia can be made large to result in good play/operation.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy with an alterable geometry/construction.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy where play does not incrementally degrade as knots accumulate in the string.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy where a functional component of the toy (in addition to the string) can be implemented by the string.
More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy where an end stoppers constraining the bobs to the string can be created from an overhand knot.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy where the length of the string is easily adjustable.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy which is safe and durable.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a swinging bob toy with a middle/sliding-pivot bob having a throughbore with a non-uniform coefficient of sliding friction, particularly for the purpose of promoting smoothness of operation.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the descriptions which follow, and will be obvious from the descriptions or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the claims.